'Human rights' groups to lose National Service volunteers?
It never would have occurred to me that the Israeli 'human rights' groups that provided the fodder for the slanderous Goldstone Report have the right to benefit from National Service volunteers - people who choose to serve the country in ways other than through the IDF (mostly religious girls). But they do have those rights - at least for now. And there's a movement afoot - which could even be called bipartisan - to revoke them (Hat Tip: Shy Guy). Behind the initiative is MK Israel Hasson (Kadima ), who recently asked Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz (Habayit Hayehudi ), the minister responsible for the National Service administration, to formulate new criteria for determining which organizations in the country are eligible to receive National Service volunteers, as part of new legislation that will govern the activities of the National Service.As I said at the top of this post, it never would have occurred to me that these organizations would have the right to benefit from National Service volunteers, given that their work is a national disservice. Maybe now that wrong will be set right.
After conducting an initial investigation, Hershkowitz discovered that among those organizations that receive National Service volunteers are the Association for Civil Rights Israel (ACRI ), Amnesty Israel, The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Physicians for Human Rights Israel. Hasson's initiative comes on the heels of similar attempts to impinge on the activities of Israeli organizations that provided information to the Goldstone Commission, while it was compiling its report on IDF activities in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead.
Ever since the Im Tirtzu movement published a list of such organizations, focusing in particular on support they received from the New Israel Fund, a number of MKs have put forward proposals aimed at cutting their funding.
In his letter to Hershkowitz, Hasson accused the organizations of slandering the IDF and its officers and called for new criteria to be set to prevent such organizations from benefiting from National Service volunteers in the future. He noted that the groups "urged the UN inquiry committee headed by Judge Goldstone to accuse Israel of anti-humanitarian activities and severe violations of human rights during Operation Cast Lead."
"The organizations have made statements based on mere assumptions regarding the motives of the IDF actions against Hamas," Hasson wrote. "They claimed the operation was a punitive one, which used destruction as a means of deterrence and punishment, not as a means for attaining any real military objectives. As a result, it raises serious suspicions about the legality of the entire operation. This was said despite the fact that these organizations did not have the information on which to base such statements."
Labels: Goldstone Report, Im Tirtzu, New Israel Fund
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:37 AM
2 Comments:
There's a difference between groups that work to strengthen Israel and those who work to undermine it.
That's why this initiative is critical. Israeli NGOs that fail or refuse to clean up their anti-Israel act should not stand to benefit from activities and programs paid for by the Israeli taxpayers.
Its that simple.
Surely our girls think twice about where they volunteer. I currently have 2 granddaughters doing National Service - one is a communarit (organizer)of a Bnei Akiva branch in a settlement. The other is a counselor in a girl's religious High School. Another granddaughter, in the past was a school tutor in a religious school in Gush Etzion.One gave Bible and Judaism lessons to secular grade schools in the North in the framework of El Ami. They all serve for 2 years.
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